Who here beat GHA? How’d you do it.

[Danj]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079DNFLB2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Haha, this thing is insane! [emoji106] I just checked out my wattage, it's 50W and my fuge is about 18x10x10" with a chaeto sardine wedged in it.

Edit: I should also mention it's a reefbreeders LED fixture and I had them customize the LEDs so it's pretty much just the wavelengths that align with the photosynthetic absorption peaks - essentially a professionally assembled DIY horticulture light.

 

[diablolx]

The only thing that work for me was Red Sea N03:O4-X Nitrate & Phosphate Reducer and weekly 10% water changes. I dosed 1ml per 25gal daily till I saw a decrease of 50% in GHA then every other day till it was completely gone. I sometimes dose twice a week when I see it starting to come back. I’m no expert but this worked for me, didn’t affect my corals or fish.

 

[DHill6]

Unconventional way of thinking but I wasn’t going to throw in the towel, the scape which was Tonga branch in my case. Dremmeled it to get to the roots, reworked it made it stronger with Marco cement. Bleached for a week, rinsed, set in the sun for a week. Yes, radical but it was the only way to beat it. I had tried snails, Vibrant, peroxide, etc. The urchin didn’t want anything to do with this gha. I lost a lot of high end acros to gha growth, I’m not sorry I beat it this way. Reset one more time.

 

[DHill6]

Also I continued with weekly water changes. At one point I removed, scraped, put back in, that also didn’t work. Additives didn’t work, manually taking charge worked. The branch has changed from white to a brown with coralline starting . A little short algae in a couple spots but nothing intrusive like before. Snails and urchin are keeping it pretty much clean. Taking it very slow, no corals being glued to that branch until coralline takes over. Patience after the gha mess.

 

[DHill6]

Also added a Santa Monica drop ATS , definitely will never run a tank without one. Gives that nasty algae a place to go, easy to clean and run.

 

[KenJ]

I beat it but it took weeks!

1. Every other day Dr Tims refresh to lower nutrient levels. Turn skimmer off for 8 hour and max refresh add early in the Am skimmer turns back on 8 hours later.
2. Every other day change 10% water change this would be Opposite Day of Dr TIMs.Suck out as much GHA as possible with th eWater change.
3. After the GHA dissipates then stop Dr Tims refresh start Waste away in place of refresh for 2-3 cycles.
4. Use waste away weekly after that.

When you have GHA you may see phosphates really low but that BS the GHA hides the numbers. When GHA is visibly gone then measure PO4 keep it below .05 via Hanna low PO4 checker. Dr Tims refresh will eat the PO4 and starve the GHA. But you still need to add something that will keep PO4 at bay long term.
the Dr Tim has a process to kill CYANO/ALGAE and it uses every 3 days for 2 weeks it works.
Long term I use GFO to. Maintain <.05 PO4.

 

[DxMarinefish]

I beat mine and maintain it as non-detectable using the following setup:

-Algae turf Scrubber on the top of the tank that sits on a Hang-on back refugium (glued to the display tank). This is lit on both sides by 3x9watt LED's making a total of 54 watts. I also use Ulva Intesinalis instead of the usual GHA;

-Sump has a mixture of Macro algae (Chaeto, Ulva Lactuca and Ulva Intestinalis) lit by a kessil 380 grow light (this light is a monster);

-CUC - 1x Sea Hare (monster GHA muncher), 1x Orange lipped Couch, 5x Striped Trochus snails, 1x sand sifting sea star, 3x Nassarius, 3x Cerith snails;

- Macro Algae in the display tank, mainly the red, blue ones. This means I can't have Tangs!

The key for me is the combination of ATS and macro algae in the sump.

I have no skimmer and I have not done a water change since inception. Tank is only 6 months old and my GHA bloom only lasted 2 weeks!

I feed heavily, with a continuous feeding regimen using doser's = 10ml phyto every hour, 10ml my blend of food x5 per day, 25ml of TNC Complete Aquarium Plant food every other day, 10 ml of TNC "Lite" Aquarium Plant food once a day (this has no P04 or N03);

Dx

 

[SimonHP]

Please do not do that..
1- this is home remedy for bryopsis not GHA
2- even for bryopsis it's really not good neither it is gyaranteed.
3- please do not do this)

Hi Ohashimz
Please would you elaborate on the usage of Mg for algae control, why you don't like it and also why it might work. It is often recommended but not often explained.
Thank you, Simon.

 

[PhreeByrd]

You cannot 'beat GHA'. In a healthy reef ecosystem, there will always be some algae around somewhere. It must be so.

Trying to eradicate it is futile, and almost certainly unhealthy. Scrubbing rocks is a complete waste of time, as are most chemical approaches. In fact, scrubbing rocks is probably the worst idea ever, since it spreads tiny pieces of the algae around, into crevices in the rock that you cannot reach or rinse away, and gives it new places to attach and grow.

The first step needs to be positive ID. Terms like "GHA" are absolutely useless. Find out what you have and then research what it needs to thrive. Most often what is termed as 'GHA' are derbesia spp., but I have many times seen byropsis called 'GHA', and at times even caulerpa. It's important to know with as much certainty as possible what you're dealing with.

Keeping nutrients reasonably in check and giving your tank time to mature is the answer. After your tank reaches the right point, grazers and cleanup crew members will be able to keep algae from becoming a nuisance, if it's even noticeable at all. IMO, it is the only answer, or at least the only sensible answer. Been there, done that, have all the T-shirts and hats.

And remember, it will always be in your tank somewhere. It might be dormant, it might just be extremely small or thin or short, but it is there waiting for the right conditions to start growing again. But good husbandry can and will prevent that from happening.

 

[jasonrusso]

Reef Flux (fluconazole) is the only thing that worked.

I tried low nutrients, but that started killing corals.

I got a blenny, but he doesn't like long gha.

I tried manual removal, but that's nearly impossible.

I tried a colony of snails, also don't like long gha.

I tried Vibrant 3 times, causes recession in corals and huge cyano outbreaks (I dumped the bottle out finally to prevent me from using it ever again).

I finally bought a nice UV light and dosed Reef Flux. Within 3 weeks I am 99% algae free and the corals look fantastic. I see zoas I forgot I had. I put in one last maintenance dose last week. I'll see what happens when I stop.

Hopefully the UV will help and the blenny and snails will tackle the short stuff.

 

[McPuff]

I manually removed some of it, but the tangs ate the rest. Possible it was turf algae and not GFA...

 

[Hermie]

Reef Flux (fluconazole) is the only thing that worked.

I tried low nutrients, but that started killing corals.

I got a blenny, but he doesn't like long gha.

I tried manual removal, but that's nearly impossible.

I tried a colony of snails, also don't like long gha.

I tried Vibrant 3 times, causes recession in corals and huge cyano outbreaks (I dumped the bottle out finally to prevent me from using it ever again).

I finally bought a nice UV light and dosed Reef Flux. Within 3 weeks I am 99% algae free and the corals look fantastic. I see zoas I forgot I had. I put in one last maintenance dose last week. I'll see what happens when I stop.

Hopefully the UV will help and the blenny and snails will tackle the short stuff.

I'm witholding judgement on the impact of UV on hair algae for a while... many of the posts I see fail to mention using UV and I am still of hte opinion that UV kills microorganisms that effectively limit algae growth (including hair algae). I think in short bursts, UV is great because it clears up the water column, but that over time, months for example, UV kills beneficial microfauna or significantly limits their "free floating" stages such as nauplii or rotifers.

 

[serwobow]

Fluconazole got rid of it in my 50g mixed reef. Then emerald crabs and turbo snails kept it gone. I had a bad bryopsis issue, and also had several large fields of GHA. The fluconazole killed all the bryopsis in the first 2 weeks , and then the GHA started turning pale and disappeared slowly over the next month. I have been bryopsis and GHA free for about a year. Once you can get ahead of the GHA a good cleanup crew can keep it away. It is so difficult to get rid of though once it gets a foothold. That is why this thread is full of extreme measures, and why flucon has been a godsend for many.

 

[jasonrusso]

I'm witholding judgement on the impact of UV on hair algae for a while... many of the posts I see fail to mention using UV and I am still of hte opinion that UV kills microorganisms that effectively limit algae growth (including hair algae). I think in short bursts, UV is great because it clears up the water column, but that over time, months for example, UV kills beneficial microfauna or significantly limits their "free floating" stages such as nauplii or rotifers.

Perhaps, but the VAST majority of bacteria and microfauna are in the rocks and sand.

I don't want to derail this thread. Here is what I DO know. In my 210 Fowler, my nutrients were off the chart. NO3 was 100+ and. PO4 was at least 3+.

I run a high power UV on my 210, I never had ANY algae. I turned the UV off to start running AZ-NO3, and within a week I started growing green algae on everything.

 

[Sealion]

I had an outbreak about 2 years ago. I scraped off most of the gah then a dose of floconozal(sp). It worked perfectly. I have a refugium with macro algae, clean up crew(snails, hermit crabs). I’m now dosing Red Sea foundation ABC. My biggest problem now is the green/brown algae on the glass, have to get the nitrates down some how.

 

[ZoWhat]

A surefire way to beat GHA everytime

Just trying to be funny.....

I have a 180g and I've tried:

* 3-5 day blackouts (no results, well it does save electric and that's about it)

*25% weekly WCs (at 280g total water volume, really not looking to spend $1000 in salt a year)

* wet skimmer (intermediate success) I'm sure if it wasn't for my skimmer my tank would be lime green. Lol. I just wished I would have bought a skimmer for 500gals...twice my water volume to skim the crap out of my water column, literally. I think there is real POWER in having a skimmer rated TWICE your actual water volume

* adding filter socks (mild/intermediate success) teamed up with wet skimming it does slow down new GHA from forming. BRStv Investigates did a series on filter socks and socks changed out every 3 days reduced NO3/PO4 by 40%

* manual removal and scrub (only returns if other methodology are not applied)

* feeding fish less (mild success) theres only two sources being INPUTTED into your tank: SW and food.... if your RODI is not detecting PO4 then the only other logical SOURCE is coming from your food

* chaeto (mild success) but it tends to die off if my other methodology takes off successfully for a few weeks. Very hit n miss... also a PITA bc you have to flip the stuff, swish the stuff as debris builds up on it if its laying stagnant, acting like a filter catching brown debris

* algae scrubber (never used one) interested in looking more into DIY youtube videos. But hard to imagine that 95% of the algae would only grow on the scrubber and not on the LR. I dont think GHA would discriminate choosing to only grow on a scrubber...but I could be wrong

* adding FOUR urchins (mild success)....they tend to find to easiest algae to eat which is flat areas like glass. They prefer thin algae film. If algae is thick turf like, they ignore it and go for the thin algae in easy places while cracks in LR grow thick turf

* dosing an entire bottle of Dr Tim's WasteAway at the first of every month (mild success) using the product alone wont di much. It only introduces good bacteria that needs to be fed with vodka/vinegar to keep it going

* dosing NoPox or Vibrant. I can DIY that stuff myself. NoPox is 1part vinegar to 1/2part vodka to 1part RODI. Sorry RedSea your recipe is out on the streets. Vibrant is the same as NoPox just with live bacteria added to the recipe.

* dosing vodka/vinegar 1part:1part (intermediate success if done as a daily regiment). But vodkas expensive at $14 a bottle and last 3 weeks...thats $200 a year in vodka. Vodka Vinegar doesn't eliminate GHA...It WILL NOT remove existing algae. Existing stuff has to be scrubbed or manually removed. It WILL slow down NEW growth)

* I'm debating on getting a SeaHare. Wondering how well it will do in eating GHA in small cracks that urchins ignore. I'm also concerned if the SeaHare dies, read that they release a poison when they die that will wipes out your livestock

I'll follow up on a separated post if all my methods PLUS adding a SeaHare is of any value



.

 

[Hermie]

well you can see where the urchin has been:

 

[ZoWhat]

well you can see where the urchin has been:

Vapor trails....

 

[Hermie]

Vapor trails....

sonic the hedgehog

 

[ZoWhat]

He may have beaten anorexia...but not GHA




.